WHO/HEP/ECH/WSH/2020.8 Cyanobacterial toxins: saxitoxins Background document for development of WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality and Guidelines for Safe Recreational Water Environments WHO/HEP/ECH/WSH/2020.8 © World Health Organization 2020 Some rights reserved. This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO licence (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO; https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo). Under the terms of this licence, you may copy, redistribute and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes, provided the work is appropriately cited, as indicated below. In any use of this work, there should be no suggestion that WHO endorses any specific organization, products or services. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. If you adapt the work, then you must license your work under the same or equivalent Creative Commons licence. 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Dotted and dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by WHO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. All reasonable precautions have been taken by WHO to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall WHO be liable for damages arising from its use. Preface Access to safe drinking-water is essential to health, a basic human right and a component of effective policy for health protection. A major World Health Organization (WHO) function to support access to safe drinking-water is the responsibility “to propose ... regulations, and to make recommendations with respect to international health matters ...”, including those related to the safety and management of drinking-water. The first WHO document dealing specifically with public drinking-water quality was published in 1958 as International standards for drinking-water. It was revised in 1963 and 1971 under the same title. In 1984–1985, the first edition of the WHO Guidelines for drinking-water quality (GDWQ) was published in three volumes: Volume 1, Recommendations; Volume 2, Health criteria and other supporting information; and Volume 3, Surveillance and control of community supplies. Second editions of these volumes were published in 1993, 1996 and 1997, respectively. Addenda to Volumes 1 and 2 of the second edition were published in 1998, addressing selected chemicals. An addendum on microbiological aspects, reviewing selected microorganisms, was published in 2002. The third edition of the GDWQ was published in 2004, the first addendum to the third edition was published in 2006, and the second addendum to the third edition was published in 2008. The fourth edition was published in 2011, and the first addendum to the fourth edition was published in 2017. The GDWQ are subject to a rolling revision process. Through this process, microbial, chemical and radiological aspects of drinking-water are subject to periodic review, and documentation relating to aspects of protection and control of drinking-water quality is accordingly prepared and updated. Since the first edition of the GDWQ, WHO has published information on health criteria and other information to support the GDWQ, describing the approaches used in deriving guideline values, and presenting critical reviews and evaluations of the effects on human health of the substances or contaminants of potential health concern in drinking-water. In the first and second editions, these constituted Volume 2 of the GDWQ. Since publication of the third edition, they comprise a series of free-standing monographs, including this one. For each chemical contaminant or substance considered, a background document evaluating the risks to human health from exposure to that chemical in drinking-water was prepared. The draft health criteria document was submitted to a number of scientific institutions and selected experts for peer review. The draft document was also released to the public domain for comment. Comments were carefully considered and addressed, as appropriate, taking into consideration the processes outlined in the Policies and procedures used in updating the WHO guidelines for drinking-water quality and the WHO Handbook for guideline development. The revised draft was submitted for final evaluation at expert consultations. During preparation of background documents and at expert consultations, careful consideration was given to information available in previous risk assessments carried out by the International Programme on Chemical Safety, in its Environmental Health Criteria monographs and Concise International Chemical Assessment Documents; the International Agency for Research on Cancer; the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues; and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (which evaluates contaminants such as lead, cadmium, nitrate and nitrite, in addition to food additives). Further up-to-date information on the GDWQ and the process of their development is available on the WHO website and in the current edition of the GDWQ. iii Acknowledgements This background document on saxitoxin in drinking-water for the development of the World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines for drinking-water quality (GDWQ) and Guidelines for safe recreational water environments was prepared by Dr Andrew Humpage, University of Adelaide (formerly South Australian Water Corporation), Australia. The work of the following experts was crucial in the development of this document and others in the second addendum to the fourth edition: Dr M Asami, National Institute of Public Health, Japan Dr RJ Bevan, independent consultant, United Kingdom Mr R Carrier, Health Canada, Canada Dr J Cotruvo, Joseph Cotruvo & Associates and NSF International WHO Collaborating Centre, United States of America Dr D Cunliffe, South Australian Department of Health, Australia Dr L D’Anglada, Environmental Protection Agency, United States of America Dr A Eckhardt, Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency), Germany Professor JK Fawell, Cranfield University, United Kingdom Dr A Hirose, National Institute of Health Sciences of Japan Dr A Humpage, University of Adelaide (formerly South Australian Water Corporation), Australia Dr P Marsden, Drinking Water Inspectorate, United Kingdom Professor Y Matsui, Hokkaido University, Japan Professor CN Ong, National University of Singapore, Singapore Dr E Testai, National Institute of Health, Italy The draft text was discussed at expert consultations held on 14–16 July 2016, 28–30 March 2017 and 13–14 July 2018 on the second addendum to the fourth edition of the GDWQ or Toxic cyanobacteria in water. Input from all those who participated in these meetings is gratefully acknowledged. The final version of the document also takes into consideration comments from both peer reviewers and the public, as well as other experts who contributed to the text. These include I Chorus, formerly Federal Environment Agency of Germany; I Falconer, University of Adelaide, Australia; J Fastner, Federal Environment Agency of Germany; A Foss, Greenwater Labs, United States of America; B Lampe, NSF International, United States of America; L Lawton, Robert Gordon University, Scotland; and M Welker, independent consultant, Germany.